Next Bourne Movie Will Be Without Bourne
Posted 10.10.10 by Ryan
Plans for another Bourne movie hit a bump when The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass decided he wouldn't return for a fourth installment. Universal pressed on, hiring screenwriter Tony Gilroy, who worked on all the previous Bourne movies, to write a treatment for Bourne 4, titled Bourne Legacy, and, as Deadline reported earlier this week, hiring Gilroy to direct. The report questioned whether franchise star Matt Damon would return, despite Damon claiming that he "wouldn't do it with anyone" other than Greengrass. Looks like he won't have to.
After the Deadline report, Gilroy contacted Hollywood Elsewhere to clarify "one or two things," namely that Bourne Legacy will not need Damon.
It's a completely original screenplay. This is not a reboot or a recast or a prequel. No one's replacing Matt Damon. There will be a whole new hero, a whole new chapter ... this is a stand-alone project.
While Bourne Legacy won't be based on the Eric Lustabader novel of the same name, but Gilroy wanted to be clear that the movie will not ignore the three previous ones.
The easiest way to think of it is an expansion or a reveal. Jason Bourne will not be in this film, but he's very much alive. What happened in the first three films is the trigger for what happens. I'm building a legend and an environment and a wider conspiracy ... the world we're making enhances and advances and invites Jason Bourne's return [down the road].
Everything you saw in the first three films actually happened, and everyone who got into [it] will be rewarded for paying attention. We're going to show you the bigger picture, the bigger canvas. When you see what we're going and see what we're doing it'll be pretty obvious ... but Jason Bourne's activities in the first three films is the immediate trigger.
Gilroy has a difficult task in front of him to make a Bourne moive with no Bourne, but after gaining Oscar attention for writing and directing 2007's Michael Clayton, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt.